‘Flexible’ caste boundaries: cross-regional marriage as mixed marriage in rural north India

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, this article focuses on cross-regional marriage (those that cross caste and linguistic boundaries and entail long-distance migration) as mixed marriage. It queries the 'acceptance' of women sought beyond traditional boundaries of caste in a context where caste endogamy is the norm and breaches are otherwise not tolerated. It argues that while the caste of the women is overlooked when the alliance is made, their caste does not cease to be a concern in the caste-bound rural communities into which they marry. A discourse of caste, centred on food transactions, derogatory remarks about skin colour and in the refusal to marry the children of cross-regional couples, serves to mark difference and make claims to status. While there has been a decline in certain exclusionary caste practices in the village, a sense of hierarchy is retained.

Colorism as Marriage Capital: Cross-Region Marriage Migration in India and Dark-Skinned Migrant Brides

“…Studies on preference for marriage partners in India reveal a clear gendered skin-color bias, with darker-hued women facing higher rejection in arranged matrimonies (Nagar 2018). In the instance of cross-region marriages, a handful of works discuss caste and ethnocentric discriminations faced by cross-region brides in their conjugal homes (Chaudhry 2019; Kukreja 2017, 2018). However, these do not investigate how colorism contributes to increased gender violence against the women or discrimination within conjugal communities.…”

Cross-Region Marriages in Rural Haryana: Summary of the Existing Literature on Women and their Children

“…She becomes a paraya dhan (someone else's property) as she is transferred in marriage from father to husband in accordance with the ideology of kanyadan (gift of a maiden/ virgin) (Chaudhry, 2019). Chaudhry (2019) further reports that it is often the crossregional/ faraway bride who gets abused and physically beaten by her husband more often than the regional bride. She relies in ways, economic and social, on her husband and it is the explanation she cannot take the choice to depart him.…”

“…They enter a unique place, an unknown culture, and a strange community, within which few of them have any networks of support aside from their husbands. After marriage, a lady leaves her pihar (natal home/ village) to measure at her sasural (marital/ in-laws' home) among strangers (Chaudhry, 2019). She becomes a paraya dhan (someone else's property) as she is transferred in marriage from father to husband in accordance with the ideology of kanyadan (gift of a maiden/ virgin) (Chaudhry, 2019).…”

“…After marriage, a lady leaves her pihar (natal home/ village) to measure at her sasural (marital/ in-laws' home) among strangers (Chaudhry, 2019). She becomes a paraya dhan (someone else's property) as she is transferred in marriage from father to husband in accordance with the ideology of kanyadan (gift of a maiden/ virgin) (Chaudhry, 2019). Chaudhry (2019) further reports that it is often the crossregional/ faraway bride who gets abused and physically beaten by her husband more often than the regional bride.…”

Crossing the Caste and Ethnic Boundaries: Love and Intermarriage Between Madhesi Men and Pahadi Women in Southern Nepal

“…In Pubai's case, the problem of her Pahadi status was compounded by her "lower caste," since the Newar Shresthas, according to her father-in-law whom we interviewed at length, ate buffalo meat, a practice associated with the "untouchable" Chamars of the plains. 18 Recent studies in India suggest that food continues to become a matter of concern and gossip in cases where the caste background of the bride is ambiguous (Chaudhry 2018). Rajiv, on the other hand, faced the opposite problem.…”